Tag Archives | suburbia

David Holmgren looking short with “tall poppies” of Tassie permaculture Hannah Moloney and Anton Vikstrom

Hobart July 19 was the final gig of the Foss/Holmgren around Australia speaking tour. With Nicole Foss back to NZ David took the opportunity of extended presentation time (80 minutes) to expand on some of the financial issues covered by Nicole and to add more creative ad lib flourishes to Aussie St.

Described by Brisbane permaculture pioneer Dick Copeman as “the permaculture soap opera” Aussie St is a light hearted but gutsy look at opportunities for creative in-situ adaptation in suburbia to the emerging crises of contracting economics, geo-political instability, peak oil and climate change.

This event hosted by Good Life Permaculture at Sustainable Living Tasmania was broadcast live on YouTube. Despite the less than perfect visuals (and David being tired from teaching all day on the Good Life Permaculture Design Course) this broadcast is well worth viewing for anyone who missed the Foss/Holmgren tour.

We have uploaded one of David’s classic articles “Retrofitting the suburbs for sustainability”. As most of us live in the city and that’s not likely to change any time soon, the suburbs need massive retrofitting. David takes an average urban street, plays with scenarios, and shows it’s doable. You can now download the piece, originally authored for the ‘Simplicity Institute Report 12i, 2012.

I believe the evidence of global instability leading to energy descent if not total collapse is so overwhelming that it is incumbent on everyone to begin taking personal and household responsibility for reorganising their lives to adapt in place (or consolidate with family or friends). Paying off debt, teaching our kids to garden, and turning our hobby into a business is not going to solve the problems unleashed by permanent energetic and economic contraction, but after forty years of public policy denial of the limits to growth conundrum by government, the media and other sources of power and public policy, the bottom up adaption strategy is the only one with any remaining utility.

David Holmgren gave a Lunchbox/Soapbox talk at the The Wheeler Centre in February 2012, exploring the profound improvements that the application of permaculture principles and strategies could deliver for the sustainability and liveability of today’s suburbs.

Through the microcosm of four adjacent houses in ‘Aussie Street’, Holmgren demonstrates how suburbs can and will respond to the converging economic, energy and climate crises, and discovers how you can stimulate positive household and community resilience in the face of these pressures.

The upcoming transition away from a fossil-fuel based society: David Holmgren talks strategy

Luke Miller Callahan, from the GroAction Network, interviewed David Holmgren in November 2011 and asked him “How do we move away from a fossil-fuel based society?” Luke says “For all you suburbia nay-sayers out there, this discussion will be especially interesting to you.”

Currency converter (from Australian $)

The Hepburn Relocalisation Network

A community group based in Hepburn and Daylesford in Central Victoria, Australia that David and his partner Su Dennett are involved with. Recognising the urgent realities of peak oil and climate change this group is responding by raising awareness about how these issues affect the local community, and how to respond to these realities with a plan for the future.

Future Scenarios

FutureScenarios.org presents an integrated approach to understanding the potential interaction between Climate Change and Peak Oil using a scenario planning model. In the process David introduces permaculture as a design system specifically evolved over the last 30 years to creatively respond to futures that involve progressively less and less available energy.